Britain's employers are more concerned with looks than qualifications, the results of an 'under-cover', social experiment would seem to show.
Classifieds website Gumtree.com conducted the covert study in July. You may not explode with surprise at the news that a young, attractive woman posing as a cleaner attracted 16 times more job offers than an older, larger lady - despite offering the same qualifications and experience. Similarly young, attractive female applicants for nanny and PA jobs both outperformed their older, and arguably less attractive counterparts in sourcing interest.
Job adverts were placed on the site with identical qualifications but different photos and measured the response rate for a variety of positions including a PA, Nanny, Handyman and Cleaner.
The study also showed that a 'pretty woman' tends to do better than a 'handsome man' in the career stakes. A girl handyman beat the stereotypical 'hunky handyman' with double the job offers and a young, female personal assistant received five times more replies than an attractive male.
New research also reveals that one thirds of Brits (32%) admit to being influenced by a person's weight when hiring staff while 41% of men and 26% of women admit hiring someone they fancy.
Former winner of The Apprentice Michelle Dewberry comments: "As the evidence from Gumtree suggests, we live in a society that is influenced greatly by a person's appearance. But looks will only carry you so far so people need to ensure that even if they look the part they need to be able to play the part."
Can't think why they asked her.
